All it took was the mere sight of the specimen on the table. Talina had barely had time to recognize the mobber: colorful, four wings, the hooking claws, the triangular head with its deadly jaws. A dead cousin to the one that had hovered but a hand’s length from her nose that day in the forest.
Talina suffered a violent jolt of pain—as if a spear of it exploded in her gut. Bent her over and caused her to gasp. Taken by complete surprise, she clutched at her stomach; an almost mind-numbing fear burned electric through her nerves.
“Run!” The quetzal’s word hissed through her brain.
“Talina?” Raya and Step cried in unison, both reaching out to stabilize her.
“It’s the quetzal,” she said through gritted teeth, willing the pain to subside. “Yeah, you piece of shit,” she told it. “I know what it is.”
“Talina?” Raya demanded. “What’s wrong? How is the quetzal doing this?”
“Triggers the limbic system,” Talina said. “It’s not an attack. It’s afraid. Afraid of what’s on the table. Even if we all know it’s dead.”
“You know what it is? Good,” Step said, his thick arm still out to support her if she needed it. “Now you can tell the rest of us.”
Talina willed herself to stand straight, shoving the quetzal’s fear into the back of her mind. “Cap and I ran into them in the forest. We called them mobbers. Saw them chase after a bunch of leapers and finally kill a quetzal.”
“I remember you mentioning that,” Stepan told her, nodding thoughtfully as he studied the crimson, green, and blue creature on the table.
The last time Talina had seen one up close, it was staring into her eyes, hovering not more than foot in front of her face. Even then the quetzal had her paralyzed with fear. For good reason.
Now she leaned down, using a stiff wire to poke and prod at the four-winged beast. The body was about the size of a housecat’s—but diamond-shaped through the torso. Each corner of the creature’s body sported a wing with ventral and dorsal prominences to anchor the musculature to flap them. What looked like colorful feathers were not, having a similar shape but entirely different physiology from the terrestrial feather. The claw that protruded from the joint midway down each wing reminded her of a sickle: thin, curving, and seemingly glass-sharp. The head sported three eyes, had wicked, razor-sharp, serrated jaws. The tail, not quite as long as the animal, had a downy pelage.
“Doesn’t look so bad up close,” Talina said as she laid the probe down and backed away from the table. Around her the lab hummed, its refrigerator rocking slightly on mismatched legs. Only two of the four light panels still worked.
“Five people are dead,” Step reminded. “And I mean, wow. The swarm was only over the mine for ten minutes or so. In that time they stripped three people down to the bones, and finished off half of another. One, a woman, died of exsanguination on the way here, and the Supervisor and one of her marines look like walking hamburger.”
“Until you see a flock of these things”—Talina kept a hand to her belly where the quetzal was twitching nervously—“you can’t believe it. That young quetzal the mobbers killed? The thing didn’t have a chance.”
She bent down again, looking at the three eyes, now half-lidded and gray in death. “They’re visual. They key on movement. They depend on frightening their prey into flight, then they’re on it. My quetzal told me they’re not very smart.”
“Five of Aguila’s people wouldn’t agree with you,” Stepan muttered.
“I didn’t say they weren’t effective,” Talina told him. “Crocodiles aren’t smart either, but they’re the most deadly predator of humans on Earth. We’re in the middle of the twenty-second century, and they still kill more people than all the lions, leopards, and other big beasts combined in the rewilded areas.”
“Why haven’t we run into these things before?” Raya asked thoughtfully.
“I think they’re just a deep forest species,” Step answered. “If they are the apex predator, there won’t be many of them. Probably numbering less than two percent of the population of their key prey species. I’d guess they don’t like open areas like the bush around Port Authority.”
Step indicated the wings. “These guys evolved for mobility, not speed.”
“I’ve never seen anything fly the way they do,” Talina agreed. “Not even the most agile insects back on Earth.”
“What about defense against them?” Raya asked. “We’ve got a couple of hundred people on virtual lockdown at Corporate Mine. They’re terrified to leave the dome.”
“Cap and I escaped by lying still. I mean, like not moving a muscle. The mobbers looked us over, couldn’t figure out what we were.”
“I’ll have Two Spots radio that tidbit to the mine.” Step smiled grimly. “‘Just hold still.’ That ought to go over real big.”
“They might be visual hunters, but I’m not sure that just lying still will work anymore.”
“Why not?” Raya asked.
“Because this particular swarm has figured out that humans are food. Kalico told me that the swarm only left after it was full. Once they digest their kill, why the hell wouldn’t they be coming back for another meal?”